Taiwan-based LCD driver IC makers as a whole will ramp up their revenues in 2013 for the second straight year, with the combined figures for the year reaching NT$87.74 billion (US$2.96 billion), up 10.7% from a year earlier, according to Digitimes Research.

For the fourth quarter of 2013, revenues of six major LCD driver IC players will dip 6.8% sequentially and 5% on year due to decreased demand for large-size driver IC parts as well as slow sales of small-size driver ICs to the handset sector affected by seasonality, Digitimes Research said.

While most vendors have been strengthening their deployments on small-size driver IC applications for sustaining growth, Himax Technologies has designated its efforts to develop driver IC parts for smartphone applications and will see sales of its smartphone application shipments soar 67.6% on year in 2013.

With regard to the business outlook for 2014, demand for driver ICs for monitor and notebook applications will drift downward due to dwindling demand from end-market device makers, while shipments for tablet applications below 9-inch are expected to grow 27%.

With annual demand for smartphones expected to expand 29.8% in 2014, shipment growth for related driver ICs shipped to the handset sector will be higher than that for shipments of large-size IC parts, Digitimes Research added.

The rising popularity of Ultra HD TVs will ramp up demand for driver ICs from the TV sector; an increase of one percentage point in the penetration rate of the Ultra HD TVs in 2014 will be equivalent to an increase in demand for 85 million TV-use LCD driver ICs. Global shipments of driver ICs for TV applications totaled 2.36 billion units in 2013.

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